Pols request restoration of Q75 bus line

From the Queens Chronicle:

Joined by City Council Transportation Committee Chairman Ydanis Rodriguez (D-Manhattan), eastern Queens lawmakers called on the MTA last Thursday to restore the Q75 line.

Before being discontinued in the agency’s 2010 budget cuts, the bus brought residents of public transit-barren Oakland Gardens to the F subway line on Hillside Avenue.

“We’re here today to call for the restoration of Q75 bus service from this very spot at 69th Avenue and 230th Street, which is long overdue,” Councilman Barry Grodenchik (D-Oakland Gardens) said. “In the midst of what we rightly call a transportation desert, this is really the worst part of the desert.”

But the agency told the Chronicle it has no plans on bringing back the line.

“Currently, the Q88 and Q17 bus routes cover the same operating area as the former Q75 bus route,” an agency spokeswoman said in an email. The bus, she added, had the fourth lowest ridership in the entire city.

The spokeswoman also said that people in Oakland Gardens who want a one-stop ride to Jamaica can just cross the pedestrian bridge over the Long Island Expressway and get on the Q30 bus adjacent to the intersection of Cloverdale Street and the westbound Horace Harding Expressway.

Cars being keyed in Oakland Gardens

From CBS 2:

Cars are being vandalized in a Queens neighborhood, and residents say it has been going on for months – all on one specific street.

As CBS2’s Erin Logan reported, a vandal or vandals are clearly making their mark on more than a few cars on a small stretch of 75th Avenue in Oakland Gardens, Queens.

“When her car was vandalized, there were other people’s cars vandalized. At that point, I proceeded to call the cops and told them what happened,” [Nerry] Nayzov sad. “At that point, we saw an elderly man who scratched my neighbor’s car right in front of me — while police were on scene.”

Police arrested that man immediately, and Nayzov thought the problem was solved. But the vandals did not stop there.

Two and a half weeks later, more cars were damaged. CBS2 counted at least three on one side of the street, and even more on the other side.

The owner of a maroon sport-utility vehicle and a black Nissan Maxima were also saying “enough is enough” Sunday.

Paul Guterman and his wife did not even realize their Maxima was damaged until Sunday night. They asked why everyone was hovering over the cars – and then sure enough, they saw the answer.

West Nile spraying this week

From NBC:

To reduce mosquito populations and the risk of West Nile virus, the New York City Health Department plans to spray pesticide from trucks on Tuesday and Wednesday in parts of Queens.

The spraying is scheduled between 8:30 p.m. Tuesday and 6 a.m. Wednesday, weather permitting. In case of bad weather, application will begin Wednesday.

No human cases of West Nile virus have been reported this season.

The neighborhoods to be sprayed include parts of Auburndale, Corona, Flushing, Fresh Meadows, Kew Gardens Hills, Murray Hill, Pomonok, Queensboro Hill, Utopia, Bellaire, Bellerose, Douglaston, Floral Park, Floral Park Center, Glen Oaks, Hollis Hill, Little Neck, and Oakland Gardens.

CB11 rejects parking lot application

From the Queens Courier:

Bayside’s Community Board 11 rejected a developer’s request Monday night to build a parking lot on a pristine patch of land that runs along 77th Avenue after neighborhood residents banded together to stop the destruction of open space protected under decades-old zoning.

Oakland Gardens resident John Hatzopoulos spearheaded a grassroots effort since early February to save a piece of land that residents say gives the neighborhood its charm.

“We put a lot of hard work into spreading the news that they were trying to bring the trees down,” Hatzopoulos said. “But it was worth it. So many people came out to save the trees.”

The property owner, Windsor Oaks Tenants Corp., built a complex of co-ops in the 1950s along with a city agreement that they would leave a strip of land undeveloped. The land separates the co-ops from residential homes on 77th Avenue, where Hatzopoulos and his fellow troop of tree lovers live.

But the corporation tried to renegotiate its deal with the city in an attempt to turn the land into a community building and a parking lot, according to the request they submitted to Community Board 11.

Developer wants to rip down forest for parking lot

From the Queens Courier:

A Queens developer really does want to pave paradise and put up a parking lot.

But a group of self-proclaimed tree huggers in Oakland Gardens — who know what they’ve got before it’s gone — are banding together to stop a developer’s plan to uproot hundreds of trees and shrubs from a strip of wilderness behind their homes.

The property owner, Windsor Oaks Tenants’ Corp., came to an agreement with the city in 1950 that allowed them to build co-ops in Oakland Gardens even though the co-ops broke several zoning laws, according to city records. In the agreement, Windsor Oaks agreed to not build on a strip of land they owned that separates the co-ops from several blocks of private homes.

Now, the corporation is trying to renegotiate its deal with the city that would allow them to turn the wooded land into a parking lot and a community building, according to city records.

This tree-filled divider is about 200 feet wide from north to south and more than 1,200 feet from west to wast bordered by 217th Street and Springfield Boulevard.

Along with 300 people in the neighborhood who have signed a petition, Hatzopoulos is hoping to convince the city not to allow the agreement to be made. In a request made to Community Board 11 the corporation wants to create a 98 parking-space lot with an entrance on Springfield Boulevard and a community building.

In the original agreement of 1950, the city required the corporation to not only leave the area undeveloped but to also maintain a “ landscaped appearance” and that “the planting in the area shall be suitable and shall be maintained at all times in good condition.”

Skeeter spraying at sites across borough tomorrow

For more info, click here.

Meat display in Oakland Gardens

Hi Crapper,
Thought you might find this unusual for a urban neighborhood like Bayside. Check out my attached pictures of food (Dead Meat) hanging out the back windows of a house next to Queensborough Community College. This has been going on for the whole winter with different meat each week. I hope no pets are missing or hunting of wild life at Oakland Lake.

221-84 Garland Drive, Oakland Gardens 11364

Queens native back home

From NBC:

A 26-year-old Queens man who was banned from flying without explanation while trying to return home after visiting family in Montenegro is finally back in New York.

Samir Suljovic arrived at Penn Station Monday night after spending three weeks fighting to get back to the U.S. He went to Montenegro in July, and when he tried to fly back home out of Vienna, Austria on Oct. 1, airline officials told him he couldn't board the flight, citing orders from the Department of Homeland Security.

Suljovic, who was raised in Queens and lives in Oakland Gardens, believes he was banned from flying because he's Muslim.

Traveling Queens student denied re-entry into USA

From the Daily News:

A Queens man has been trapped in Europe for the last 17 days, says a civil rights group, because his name is allegedly on the no-fly list.

Samir Suljovic, 26, first tried to fly back home to New York from Vienna, Austria, on October 1. Airline agents told the New Yorker that he could not board a return flight at the request of his own government.

On Wednesday, the New York Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY) issued a statement that demands that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) allow Suljovic to return home from his current location, Germany.

Suljovic tried to contact the DHS and CBP liaison at JFK International Airport but has not received a response, says the rights group. He was advised to ask for help from the Germany's U.S. embassy. But instead of support he was allegedly interrogated and his cell phone was searched without his consent.

Suljovic, born and raised in Oakland Gardens, Queens, was attending Queensboro Community College, according to CAIR-NY’s statement. He initially traveled to Europe to visit family and friends in Montenegro.

Alley Pond playground reopens after fire

From Bayside Patch:

The Alley Pond Park playground reopened late last week after having been shuttered in September due to an apparent act of arson.

Councilman Mark Weprin, D-Oakland Gardens, who obtained funds to repair the playground, joined Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski and local leaders Friday to reopen the site.

A total $175,000 was spent to replace the playground equipment, which was damaged during an overnight fire on Sept. 28.

City Department of Parks and Recreation officials believe that the fire was an act of arson, but no arrests have been made in the incident.

Most expensive Queens homes are in Rockaway

From the Daily News:

A new report on the priciest blocks in Queens has been raising eyebrows over some unexpected results.

Belle Harbor, in the Rockaways, had the borough’s most expensive block — which came as a surprise to local brokers.

The median Belle Harbor home price on Rockaway Beach Blvd., between Beach 145th and Beach 146th Sts. was $2.5 million, according to the PropertyShark report.

Forest Hills Gardens scored the next three spots on the list, with median home prices in the vicinity of Seasongood Road and Ascan Ave. fetching $1.66 million to $1.35 million.

Other areas on the list of pricey blocks included Douglaston, Oakland Gardens and Jamaica Estates.

Whitestone was also very expensive...but wasn’t pricey enough to make the cut.

Southeast Queens, and in particular Jamaica, where the lion’s share of the borough’s foreclosures have been, had the lowest home values...

Missing girl returns home

From Bayside Patch:

A nightmare scenario has come to an end for one Oakland Gardens family, as police say their 16-year-old daughter has turned up unharmed.

The NYPD issued an alert on Jan. 10, calling out for information about the wherabouts of the girl, Angela Zheng.

Zheng had left her home on 59th Avenue at 6:40 a.m. on Jan. 6, but did not go to school. Instead she headed to Astoria, where she stayed with a friend, according to a police source, who did not provide further information.

Queens kids missing

From NBC:

Police are looking for a 12-year-old Queens boy who disappeared on his way home from school Tuesday.

Authorities say Gerardo Ramos was last seen at about 2 p.m. Tuesday walking home from I.S. 204 on 28th Street. Police say he has no history of running away.

The Astoria boy is about 5'1" tall and 105 pounds with brown eyes and short black hair. He was last seen wearing a brown coat, grey sweater, blue jeans, and blue and gray sneakers.

Anyone with information about Ramos' whereabouts is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).

UPDATE: The boy was found unharmed.

From the Village Voice:

​Angela Zheng, a 16-year-old Queens resident, left her house around 7 a.m. Friday -- and never returned.

Now, cops want your help finding her.

They say the 5-4, 110-pound teenager left her home at 225-14 59th Avenue at 6:40 a.m.

Zheng, who has black hair, was last seen at that address, and was sporting a blue jacket with fur trim, blue jeans, and a black sweatshirt before her disappearance.

Zheng, who is Asian, also wears glasses and braces on her teeth. Zheng, cops say, is in good mental and physical health.

From the Queens Courier:

Police are asking for the public’s help finding a Flushing teen that went missing Tuesday, December 13.

Pascal Chiu, 15, was last seen near Francis Lewis High School at approximately 2 p.m. this past Tuesday. Chiu is 5-feet-4-inches tall, weighs 120 pounds and was last seen wearing a red jacket, blue jeans and white sneakers.

Arson at Alley Pond

From Bayside Patch:

The playground inside Alley Pond Park has been torched in an apparent act of arson.

The recreation area located at the corner of Springfield Blvd. and 79th Ave. in Oakland Gardens looks to have been set ablaze overnight, on Tuesday or the wee hours of Wednesday morning.

The playground was closed after the fire, as equipment, an the ground surrounding where it stood, has been scorched, according to Councilman Mark Weprin, D-Oakland Gardens.

The Dept. of Parks and Recreation is investigating.

Wake up, Weprin!

Letter to the Times Ledger:

The proliferation of two- and four-family home construction is the often-neglected “elephant in the room” when we are talking about the overcrowding of our schools in Bayside.

I have read the comments by City Councilman Mark Weprin (D-Oakland Gardens) in your June 3-9 article “Bayside leaders fear influx of new HS students,” in which he laments the migration of students from other communities into Bayside schools.

The current Hollis Hills/Auburndale/Oakland Gardens rezoning proposal will ensure that all future construction in most of Oakland Gardens will be single-family construction (R2-A). This was the result of years of long and hard civic involvement by the community of Oakland Gardens.

But after Weprin became installed as the new councilman for Oakland Gardens, he began advocating for the community to continue to be zoned for two-family homes. So, of course, I was surprised to hear him lament about the overcrowding of Bayside schools.

I have met with Weprin on two occasions, along with representatives of the civic association of Oakland Gardens, to ensure that the community continues its course to be downzoned so that most future construction will be single-family homes. Curiously, for reasons only he knows, he has decided to side with the developers.

Doubling and tripling the size of a community will require that the children living in these homes be educated. There are only so many seats in our schools. Where will they be educated? If single-family homes are allowed to double — and triple with illegal basement apartments — where will our current elementary school-aged children go when they reach high school age?

It is hard to reconcile that a representative for our community, who also happens to be the chairman of the Council Zoning Subcommittee and who can reject any rezoning proposal that will contribute to the overcrowding of our schools, is not advocating to downzone Bayside area communities to single-family but instead is readying to approve a zoning plan that will contribute to overcrowding.

We shall see if Weprin approves a zoning proposal which contributes to the overcrowding of Bayside schools when it reaches his desk.

Joseph T. McMahon
Oakland Gardens

Poisoned pen attacks Ackerman

From the Times Ledger:

An open letter to U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman:

How dare you. You refused to respond to my letter dated Sept. 4 and my phone call to your office prior to the House of Representatives voting on the health reform bill — totally disregarding my asking of you, as your constituent, to vote the contrary.

This is not the first time you have insulted me. The first time was when you were actively involved in your Queens weekly newspaper and I was a volunteer doing the publicity for the county chapter of the Allergy Foundation of America.

I called to ask why your newspaper was the only local paper that would not accept, as a public service, our announcement that an allergy specialist —a medical doctor — would be addressing the public at Booth Memorial Hospital, now New York Hospital Queens, and would answer any questions regarding asthma.

Your answer was simple and to the point: “Do you know that I am running for office? What are you doing for me?”

I immediately threw the phone down. I cannot forget that harsh statement.

Wow! More like this, please.

Critters invade abandoned home

From the Times Ledger:

Neighbors living near a vacant Oakland Gardens home said they believe the site has been attracting unwanted critters into their community, including a skunk that has sprayed several neighborhood pets.

The home, at 218-51 Hartland Ave. in Oakland Gardens, has been sitting empty for a number of years following the death of the owner, neighbors said. A car with four flat tires in the driveway has a 2001 inspection sticker in the window, a porch in the back of the property is filled with musty furniture that is stacked in piles and a side door has a broken-out window.

Residents living along the street and behind the vacant property said they were fed up with animals scampering to and from the home during the past few years, including raccoons, rats, possums and a skunk.

Skeeter spraying to commence today

From NY1:

The city health department is getting ready to spray parts of Staten Island, Queens and the Bronx in order to control mosquitos.

The operation starts this Friday and lasts through Tuesday, weather permitting between the hours of 6 a.m. and 7 p.m.

Queens
• Douglaston/Oakland Gardens (Alley Pond Park)
• Linden Hill/College Point (Abandoned Flushing Airport)
• Edgemere/Somerville (Dubos Point and Edgemere Park)
• Flushing (Flushing River)

Judge targeted by shooter?

JUDGE'S QUEENS HOME SHOT UP
By JOE MOLLICA, MURRAY WEISS and LUKAS I. ALPERT, NY Post

A gunman opened fire at a the home of a Queens judge today in a shocking attack on the day the jurist was set to sell the property.

Acting Queens Supreme Court Justice Fernando Camacho's home in Oakland Gardens was empty when the gunman struck. No one was hurt.

At about 4 a.m., someone fired four shots at the two-story Cape Cod-style house. Three went through a wall into the dining room and one hit just below a bedroom window on the second floor, police said.

Cops recovered four shell casings beneath a car across the street, sources said.

Camacho, 47, was in Montauk with his family at the time.

Camacho had put the house up for sale for $799,000. The deal was set to close today, police said.

As a handyman worked to patch the holes in the façade of the house, Camacho left to complete the sale.

"I'm all right," he said. "I appreciate your concern but I really cannot say anything right now."

Camacho primarily handles domestic violence and matrimonial cases.

Investigators initially looked to see if the judge had received any threats related to a case he handled, but could find none. They were also looking into the possibility that the wrong house was targeted.

Oakland Lake to get a facelift

A beloved lakeside pathway in eastern Queens is slated to get a much-needed makeover after repeated flooding over the years has plunged it into disrepair.

The pathway that circles Oakland Lake - a spring-fed kettle lake in Oakland Gardens - had been a favored place of refuge for locals before it fell on hard times.

Cleanup coming for once-popular Oakland Lake pathway, hit by floods

The steep slopes surrounding the 20-foot-deep lake contain wetlands that overflow when it rains, causing erosion and making the area muddy and difficult to navigate, Egers said.

The city Parks Department and New Yorkers for Parks - an independent watchdog for city parks, beaches and playgrounds - are researching designs to alleviate the persistent flooding.

A landscape architecture firm revealed potential designs at a recent community meeting. These included elevated wood decking, flat steppingstones with spaces between them that act like sponges and permeable screens placed parallel to the walkway.